Need a new phone? Negotiate for one this week
If your mobile phone or smartphone contract has expired, then you're in a rare sweet spot this week.
Through Friday, Chicago-based U.S. Cellular is offering all of its phones for free and a $100 credit on your bill. So if you're in the market for a new handset, this is a good time to get it.
Not that you have to go to U.S. Cellular, unless you want to. But knowing about the U.S. Cellular promotion certainly helps if you're negotiating with your own service provider.
You, as a consumer, are a hot commodity to every wireless provider. You're important to the company's viability and help with its bragging rights. So your current provider doesn't want to lose you.
If you do your homework and have the patience to withstand some corporate rhetoric, you could walk out of almost any phone store with a good deal.
That's why this price war is a good time to stuff that holiday stocking with what you want.
My husband and I found that out. Our two-year contract with a major carrier expired more than a year ago, yet we continued with our current handsets and service. That's right — you don't have to rush to another contract or get a pay-as-you-go phone just because your current contract expired.
With the barrage of new technology, we considered everything and did the math. We weighed the costs of various handsets and were prepared to wear hip-boots, if necessary, to wade through the confusing sales pitches.
We could have avoided the hard-sell by buying online. But we wanted the personal interface that helps when you're negotiating.
When U.S. Cellular began offering all phones for free, we stopped in the store to try some handsets. We also visited some of the competitors. In each case, as soon as we brought up the U.S. Cellular promotion, the competition offered a deal not listed on the in-store signage, such as free or deeply discounted phones and activation or upgrade fee waivers.
We even negotiated to retain our current service plan, instead of paying more for features we just didn't need.
In all, we walked out of the store with two new free phones, and car chargers and holding cases at a discount. Although we signed a new two-year contract, we retained our previous family plan pricing structure.
Nearly every provider is willing to work with a customer. The U.S. Cellular offer, along with holiday shopping, new technology and various deals, has driven up traffic at many phone stores, company officials said.
AT&T, which has its Midwest headquarters in Hoffman Estates, couldn't say how sales were going this week but noted that Black Friday showed a lot more activity online and in stores, said AT&T spokesman Rick Fox.
“As far as competition, the wireless market continues to be extremely competitive and it really comes down to offering customers what they want, and AT&T has the leading selection of smartphones, and some of the best pricing ever on the most popular devices, including buy-one-get-one offers on AT&T's Windows Phones, special offers on the BlackBerry Torch, and more,” Fox said.
Verizon Wireless, which has its Midwest headquarters in Schaumburg, said it's been happy with strong sales, but could not provide any numbers at this time. It attributes the business to Android devices and its network.
“Our strategy has never been to react to our competition but rather focus on providing the best wireless value and experience for our customers,” said Verizon spokeswoman Carolyn Schamberger.
U.S. Cellular can't say at this point how its promotion has been going either, but they're happy with the response, said Chris Rathsack, U.S. Cellular director of sales in Chicago.
“This is our way to get people acquainted with The Belief project (no contract after the first one) and get them to stay even without a contract,” Rathsack said.